Suspended for Otter Nonsense

[SerLuke]

Is it possible that the lack of moderator communication some kind of cultural difference?

Perhaps this is normal procedure for a Japanese forum, and Japanese managers are setting the rules for how all moderators must behave and handle incidents? There could be stricter social codes that they stick to anyway, and are less likely to overstep the boundaries in the first place.

Is anyone here at all familiar with Japanese forum etiquette?

From what I can tell the JP forums are very, very different they have different subcategories and much fewer but more populated threads than we do.

[Iscah]

From what I can tell the JP forums are very, very different they have different subcategories and much fewer but more populated threads than we do.

Yeah, I know they have a different, more organised approach to threads in the first place, but what about moderation?

Perhaps they rarely step over these troublesome invisible boundaries in the first place.

Do mods communicate with them? Do they ever need to? Would a silent ban like the ones handed out here be understood as "okay, I stuffed up, I deserved that" and not feel like they should have been warned first?

If it's a set rule that the mods themselves have to follow, that they have to stay silent and not be actively known and personal, they may have no choice in the matter.

[Valkyrie_Lenneth]

The rules are in the sticky at the top of each subforum. There isn't really a guess on how to find the rules, as they are easy to find and laid out pretty clearly.

Maybe that's why they don't step in and say "hey, you are breaking these rules".

They do (or did) pop in and give a warning when topics got heated and said they would lock the threads if things continued, or lock them when the discussions are going in circles and the point is long past being made.

[Lilseph]

The forums would be a better place if the mods, instead of hiding the posts and silently ban the users, they start putting these posts on invisible, relay a public warning and keep threads monitored. Lock them if it's needed. That way you're moderating, you're sending a message and people understand what's going on. Knowing that, they will start behaving themselves when needed. Right now, the moderation team is acting more as an executioner.

They put the ban in your account which it's always 100% accurate according to the admin that "reviews" them and you gotta go through a appeal system that does nothing but to rely automated and copy pasted response. The whole process has no transparency whatsoever. I am also an ex-moderator from a relatively big MMO community and we handled things more efficiently, with warnings instead of bans and applying suspensions on severe issues. Contacting users and letting them know what's wrong with that they did. Also known as "slap on the wrist". The caring that the mod team puts on the forum community is almost non-existant.

My next issues is the complete lack of consistency. I've seen users commenting, trolling, flamming and getting away with it completely. So apparently all it takes it's an user holding a grudge on you, report your comment and wait for the guillotine to fall down. I barely use the forums anymore because of how they treat their users and I hope they address this in the future.

[HyoMinPark]

Is it possible that the lack of moderator communication some kind of cultural difference?

Perhaps this is normal procedure for a Japanese forum, and Japanese managers are setting the rules for how all moderators must behave and handle incidents? There could be stricter social codes that they stick to anyway, and are less likely to overstep the boundaries in the first place.

Is anyone here at all familiar with Japanese forum etiquette?

Not sure about the JP forums, but I have heard that community moderators of the French and German forums tend to step in more than the NA moderators of threads go off-topic or start getting nasty. I don't post on either, nor do I visit them (I can't speak French or German) - but this was told to me by a few people that do visit/post there.

I can't recall the last time a moderator ever stepped into an NA thread to ask people to either stay on topic or to calm down before the thread is locked. As I said in my post here describing this situation, I can only recall one thread that was actually locked when it needed to be. Most actions tend to be fairly silent: posts vanish or, sometimes, the thread itself does; but we don't hear from a moderator about why they removed it/started deleting posts. Moderation seems to be fairly invisible for the most part over here.

The rules are in the sticky at the top of each subforum. There isn't really a guess on how to find the rules, as they are easy to find and laid out pretty clearly.

My issue is it seems some people get away with breaking these rules while others do not. I think several people here share this concern, since consistency is being brought up.

They do (or did) pop in and give a warning when topics got heated and said they would lock the threads if things continued, or lock them when the discussions are going in circles and the point is long past being made.

The last (and only) time I recall this happening during my 3+ years posting here was for the 100+ page thread about 4.0 WHM and the Lily system made 2 years ago. And it was well after the thread had devolved past anything meaningful (the locking, that is). I can't actually recall a time where an NA moderator stepped in to tell posters to calm down when conversations get heated, and gods know there have been several of these threads within my time here.

[SturmChurro]

The forums would be a better place if the mods, instead of hiding the posts and silently ban the users, they start putting these posts on invisible, relay a public warning and keep threads monitored. Lock them if it's needed. That way you're moderating, you're sending a message and people understand what's going on. Knowing that, they will start behaving themselves when needed. Right now, the moderation team is acting more as an executioner.

They put the ban in your account which it's always 100% accurate according to the admin that "reviews" them and you gotta go through a appeal system that does nothing but to rely automated and copy pasted response. The whole process has no transparency whatsoever. I am also an ex-moderator from a relatively big MMO community and we handled things more efficiently, with warnings instead of bans and applying suspensions on severe issues. Contacting users and letting them know what's wrong with that they did. Also known as "slap on the wrist". The caring that the mod team puts on the forum community is almost non-existant.

My next issues is the complete lack of consistency. I've seen users commenting, trolling, flamming and getting away with it completely. So apparently all it takes it's an user holding a grudge on you, report your comment and wait for the guillotine to fall down. I barely use the forums anymore because of how they treat their users and I hope they address this in the future.

Yes! So true! I get the feeling bans are handed out via weaponized reports from users with a grudge (how I assume I was banned this most recent time).

Yeah, the ban is always "100% accurate" according to the "review". In my opinion, there isn't even actually an appeal process. The moderators are never wrong! You wait 3-4 days for them to get back to you just to say, and I'll quote my email:

Greetings,

We understand you are contacting us in regards to an account action. However, the account action has been reviewed previously and was deemed correct. We understand this can be distressing as it means the account is not accessible, however, we request that you review the terms of service for the Official Forums to better understand the reasons for the account action.

Thank you

It took them 4 days to tell me the account actions was "reviewed previously, and deemed correct".

I won't quote what my ban was for, but I have reviewed their terms of service, and, in my opinion, the only way what I posted was bannable was if they have the most broad interpretation of their terms of service as possible. As in, again, they can ban you for literally anything.

[Joven]

The rules are in the sticky at the top of each subforum. There isn't really a guess on how to find the rules, as they are easy to find and laid out pretty clearly.

Maybe that's why they don't step in and say "hey, you are breaking these rules".

They do (or did) pop in and give a warning when topics got heated and said they would lock the threads if things continued, or lock them when the discussions are going in circles and the point is long past being made.

I don't think anyone has a problem finding the rules, just with how or if they're chosen to be enforced or not. Also, I don't think anyone on here is going to reference the sticky post before responding to a thread to make sure what they want to say falls in line. When it becomes obvious that a moderator is already watching a certain thread it really shouldn't be too much of an effort on their part to post a quick "y'all done goofed" if things go sideways.

I think mods used to be more hands on in the past. I've seen small threads early on have a mod pop in and contribute info, but recently I've seen large threads where posters have directly called for a mod to clarify bits of info regarding things like the ToS only to be met with silence.

[Zeonx]

I was over my cousins house when he got perm off these forums I go over there a lot even to post sometimes.
he showed me the emails he got and I laughed cause a lot of the stuff he was temp banned for people say today and still are posting.

He tried to get the ban overturned and explained people post the same stuff now then they replied they don't need to give a reason.

Problem was someone he reported because he said he was going to report them for something started to revenge report when they returned.
going through Post history even got him for a post a GM told him to get help on forums in beta then 3 years later was temp banned for that post instead of the forums GM to remove the topic after the help.

Then he got banned for small things that didn't even seem right till the perm.

cousin doesn't care anymore advice he told me not to post who you are reporting or say anything if it seems like a form of a attack but isn't don't post it people will revenge by chat history.

eventually the forums will croak leaving only leaving everyone who agree's with everything you say that really seems boring.

if you cannot debate things I say and nobody has a difference of opinion than why even have a forums at all perm only gets rid of the other side of the chat table and once all of them are gone consider this the allakzham forums that's why FFXIAH forums got so popular

then you have all the same faces posting the same stuff everyday then once that happens i'll fully move to reddit.

[Iscah]

Not sure about the JP forums, but I have heard that community moderators of the French and German forums tend to step in more than the NA moderators of threads go off-topic or start getting nasty. I don't post on either, nor do I visit them (I can't speak French or German) - but this was told to me by a few people that do visit/post there.

So not a global ruling then, but perhaps something coming from the American management team rather than the mods themselves.

Is it possible they are not permitted to act without receiving a report first? And then have to apply certain criteria to a report, regardless of subtleties or personal judgement?

It would certainly skew the reports and punishments towards (hypothetical) "unreasonable people" taking offence to and reporting over minor issues, while more tolerant "reasonable people" might let things slide that really could/should be moderated - instead responding directly to the arguments in the discussion. Especially when we know that the punishments for being moderated are potentially harsh, and would rather gently talk it over in the hope that the other person will come to agree.

I don't want the forum to be a place where everyone gets reported for everything, but isthat what it takes for the mods to (be able to) respond if they consider it necessary?

[Canadane]

Just don't post memes. Seems simple enough.